Monastery of Our Lady

Pen Our Dear Women

Night shot 2012

The Monastery of Our Dear Women (also Marienstift or Liebfrauenstift ) is a monastery in Magdeburg's old town . The building ensemble is one of the most important Romanesque structures in Germany . Today the building is used as the municipal art museum, Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen and a concert hall. The monastery is one of the most famous sights in the city. It is in close proximity to Magdeburg Cathedral and the city center.

history

Founded as a collegiate foundation (from 1015)

The first spiritual community was founded around 1015 to 1018 by the Archbishop of Magdeburg, Gero, as a collegiate monastery (Marienstift) and staffed with canons. The foundation building could have been made of wood. The only thing that is certain is that the alleged charter is a later forgery. Archbishop Werner had the Liebfrauenstift rebuilt from 1063/64. A three-aisled, flat-roofed basilica was built , in which Archbishop Werner in 1078 and Archbishop Heinrich I of Assel in 1107 were buried. The construction work on the new basilica was delayed, but continued after Norbert von Xanten was ordained archbishop.

Premonstratensian Canons (from 1129)

Cloister

Monastery garden with well house

In 1129 Archbishop Norbert von Xanten transferred the monastery to the newly founded Premonstratensian order , which was confirmed by Pope Honorius II . According to Prémontré , this Premonstratensian canon monastery in the rank of an independent provost's office became, as it were , the mother monastery of the order in the eastern part of the area. During this time the church was completed with the erection of the two church towers. The two-storey cloister , the fountain house and the summer and winter refectory were completed for the enclosure . In 1130 the Alexius Hospital was handed over to the monastery. Norbert von Xanten was buried in front of the cross altar in 1134. Under Albrecht the Bear , the monastery received several villages as a donation in 1151. In the course of the further development of the order, the monastery already maintained connections to 16 daughter monasteries in 1180.

In the city fire of 1188, the monastic Marienkirche also suffered damage. In the course of the necessary repair and reconstruction work, the high-column chapel was built on the site of the northern side apse . In the nave, the columns were replaced by pillars , whereby the column shafts were partially preserved. The old Magdeburg Cathedral burned down on Good Friday in 1207. The Marienstiftskirche of the monastery of Our Lady was therefore hastily elevated to the cathedral . Archbishop Albrecht I von Käfernburg already celebrated mass here at Easter . In 1211 the archbishop announced the the pope in this church Otto IV. Imposed ban . Between 1220 and 1240 renovations took place to introduce Gothic elements. Thus arose the central nave a ribbed vault and in the aisles groin vault . However, the Romanesque character of the church was retained.

In 1293 the monasteries in Brandenburg , Broda , Gottesgnaden , Gramzow , Havelberg , Jerichow , Kölbigk , Leitzkau , Mildenfurth , Pöhlde , Quedlinburg , Ratzeburg , Roda , Stade and Themnitz were subordinated to the Propstei Unser Lieben Frauen . In 1349 the monastery was given patronage over the St. Ulrich and Levin Church in Magdeburg by Archbishop Otto von Hessen . This also included the patronage of all city churches.

The dormitory , which burned down in a fire, was rebuilt in 1445. In 1500 the choir vault was renewed and the choir windows were enlarged. In the meantime there was also a printing works in the monastery , this is mentioned for the year 1504. In 1505 an inn was built on the east side of the churchyard. In 1506 the pilgrimage chapel to the Mount of Olives was built in the churchyard , which was supposed to increase the religious significance of the monastery. In 1510 a guest house was built east of the monastery church. The vault used by the guest house as a cellar is still preserved today.

reformation

St. Marien Collegiate Church

During the Reformation the monastery did not join the Reformation movement that was predominant in Magdeburg, but remained Catholic . In 1524, however, the monastery lost its patronage over the Sankt-Johannis-Kirche Magdeburg and the Sankt-Ulrich-und-Levin-Kirche. During the Schmalkaldic War the monastery was looted in 1546/1547, so that the city council took control of the keys to the desecrated St. Mary's Church and kept it until 1558. In 1550/1551 the dormitory was damaged again during the siege of the city by imperial troops . The immunity of the monastery was recognized in the Augsburg Religious Peace in 1555 , upon which the keys were returned in 1558. However, the situation of the abbey residents, who had become a small Catholic minority, remained difficult. In 1570 the Premonstratensian Canons decided to forego their white vestments outside the monastery. Pope Gregory XIII 1582 canonized Norbert von Xanten, who was buried in the Marienstiftskirche of the monastery. The tomb was then changed. The grave was then located west of the crypt . A marble grave slab was made.

The reopening of the Marienkirche took place on March 25, 1591 with a sermon by the evangelical preacher of Magdeburg Cathedral, Siegfried Sack . It was the first evangelical sermon in this church. After the last Catholic provost of the Premonstratensians died in 1597, the remaining Catholic religious left the monastery on April 4, 1601. The bones of Saint Norbert remained.

In 1626 the abbot of the Premonstratensian Abbey Strahov Caspar von Questenberg traveled to Magdeburg to transfer the remains of Norbert to Prague . Although Magdeburg was just besieged by Wallenstein's troops in the course of the Thirty Years War , this undertaking was successful. Caspar von Questenberg then forced the return of the monastery to the Premonstratensian order by an order from the Emperor in 1628. In fact, three canons from Bohemia and six canons from the Netherlands moved back into the monastery. When Magdeburg was stormed and largely destroyed by imperial troops under Tilly on May 10, 1631, the monastery was only relatively slightly damaged. On the part of the attackers, it was treated separately and protected from looting. In 1632 the Premonstratensian Canons, who had been drafted in 1628, left the monastery again - taking the library and archive with them.

Due to the destruction in the city, the city churches could not be used for a long time. The city of Magdeburg therefore used the monastery complex between 1639 and 1645. In 1642 Ernestus Bake was appointed provost by the cathedral chapter , albeit illegally . He held this position until 1646. In 1650, the monastery was transferred to the Elector Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg . In 1689 the collegiate church of St. Marien was assigned for use by Western European religious refugees ( Palatinate ) who had fled to Magdeburg . Between 1696 and 1700 the main apse and the southern choir wall were rebuilt, with ogival windows being built in.

Pedagogy

At the suggestion of Burchard Müller , preacher of the Palatinate, a monastery school was built on June 1, 1698. In 1700 a monastery school library was set up, which still exists today. In 1718 the monastery school was named Pedagogy for the Monastery of Our Dear Women . From 1719, the streets adjacent to the monastery were built on by order of the governor Prince Leopold von Anhalt-Dessau . To the north of the cloister , a residential building, the so-called Mittelhaus , was built for the school's students and teachers in 1746 . With the appointment of Gotthilf Sebastian Rötger as provost and prelate in 1780 and the modern teaching methods that came with it, the pedagogy acquired a supraregional reputation. In 1800 Rötger appointed Friedrich August Göring as rector. The school's graduates included the later writer Carl Leberecht Immermann (1807 to 1813) and the playwright Georg Kaiser . 1814, Magdeburg was French occupied the French army used the monastery as a cavalry barracks and hospital . The monastery church was used as a cattle shed.

In 1880 Christian Georg Kohlrausch (1851–1934) a. a. appointed as a gymnastics teacher . He worked there until his retirement in 1913 and was worldwide through its 1,882 published studies and experiments with students for Discus known that the reintroduction of this sports discipline of the ancient Olympic Games again only allowed (1896 during the first Olympic Games of the modern era ). During this time he also introduced football in Magdeburg - see also football in Germany - and became one of the central figures in the Magdeburg sports movement.

secularization

In the years 1832 to 1834 the monastery was secularized . The pedagogy became a state school. Here worked u. a. Karl Christoph Gottlieb Zerrenner . In 1888 the pilgrimage chapel to the Mount of Olives was torn down. The entrance portal of the church was moved to the northern side of the complex. In 1907 an organ was installed . An extensive restoration of the cloister took place in 1925 and 1926. In 1928 the pedagogy was merged with the cathedral high school Magdeburg . From 1929 the old Lutherans used the monastery church for their services.

War memorial for the fallen teachers and students

On August 21, 1921, in the cloister of the monastery, the war memorial created by the sculptor Ludwig Thormaehlen for the teachers and students of the grammar school who died in the World War was unveiled. In addition to two name plaques, Thormaehlen created a bust of his friend Bernhard von Uxkull, who was divorced by suicide in 1918 . The bust was supposed to represent the prototype for all war volunteers from 1914. Even if the two name boards have disappeared, the stele has been preserved.

Second World War

During the Second World War in 1945, air raids destroyed the western wing of the enclosure and the roof of the church. Between 1947 and 1949 the choir of the Marienkirche was rebuilt, the organ gallery was demolished in 1948.

German Democratic Republic

Heinrich Apel: Detail at the entrance gate of the monastery of Our Dear Women

Large sculpture collection at the monastery

The old Lutheran congregation used the high-column chapel between 1950 and 1957 . The religious use of the monastery complex was thus ended. The new purpose of the facility should be a cultural use. In 1959 the construction of the western part of the enclosure began. The assembly hall in the north wing was demolished in 1960. On January 1, 1966, the monastery complex became the property of the city of Magdeburg. A first exhibition dedicated to the history of the city followed in 1969. In 1973 the monastery school library was torn down and the portal designed by Heinrich Apel was installed. On October 1, 1974, the monastery was opened as a museum for fine arts. Further restoration work followed, so that the usable area was expanded. However, the summer refectory was not reconstructed. The cloakroom and a café were built here. Since 1975 the former monastery has been designated as the Art Museum Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen by council resolution of June 11, 1975 for the acceptance of the Magdeburg art collections and the presentation of art exhibitions. In 1976 the " National Collection of Small Sculptures of the GDR " was opened in the monastery . The St. Marien monastery church was converted into the " Georg Philipp Telemann Concert Hall ". In 1977 underfloor heating was installed and the bronze door designed by Waldemar Grzimek was installed. The concert hall was completed on September 17, 1977.

In 1978 the church received a new bell produced in the VEB Apoldaer bell foundry , which Apolda's master bell founder Peter Schilling and his wife Margarete Schilling designed. The bronze - bells have the tones c ¹ , d ¹ , e ¹ , g ¹ , A ¹ , c ² , a ² , cis ³ , e ³ and F # ³ , and a total weight of 9901 kg. It is heard annually to commemorate the bombing raids on Magdeburg on the evening of January 16, 1945.

In 1988 the restoration of the upper cloister began. In 1989 45 large sculptures were placed in the vicinity of the monastery to supplement the small sculpture collection. Wieland Förster also created the bronze relief for the door to the high-column chapel.

Since 1990

After the German reunification in 1990, Werner Stötzer added another bronze relief door for the lower cloister in 1992 . In 1994 the crypt was restored , and in 1999 the renovation of the cloister began. In 1993 the monastery was declared the center of the newly established Romanesque Road .

In the meantime there is a small Premonstratensian convent "Our dear women" in Magdeburg, which, however, has no connection with the old monastery buildings. It is a priory that is dependent on Hamborn Abbey .

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  St. Marien Abbey Church, interior view of the nave facing east before restoration (August 1971)

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  Interior view of the nave facing west before restoration (August 1971)

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  Interior view of the nave to the east

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  Console on a nave pillar

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  View into the garden of the monastery

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  South portal with sheet mask on Romanesque capital (around 1150) outside right and bronze relief by Waldemar Grzimek 1972 and 1976

organ

The concert organ was inaugurated on September 21, 1979. The instrument was built by the organ building company Jehmlich as their Opus 1000 and has 62 stops on four manuals and a pedal . The almost 5400 pipes are on slider chests . The key actions are mechanical, the stop actions and links are electrical. 1995 Jehmlich undertook a general overhaul and technical overhaul of the organ, as well as a sound modification.

From 1979 until the inauguration of the main organ in the cathedral in 2008, the concert hall organ was the largest organ in the city. According to the former concert hall organist Hans Otto, the preservation authorities did not allow the mandatory 32-foot registers for an organ of this size , so that only an acoustic 32 'was installed.

It is used together with the cathedral organs and the organ in the Sebastianskirche at the Gottfried August Ritter organ competition.

Museum of Fine Arts

→ Main article : Kunstmuseum Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen Magdeburg

After a renovation phase, the art museum reopened on February 19, 2012 with an exhibition by Christiane Möbus and other objects on the window front of the building.

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  Monastery of Our Dear Women: Mirrors as art in architecture

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  Facade installation by realities: united (Jan and Tim Edler)

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  Annegret Laabs at the reopening on February 19, 2012

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  Christiane Möbus : Exhibition for the reopening

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  Dagmar Schmidt : Art view in the sculpture park of the monastery

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  Bartl , Krause , Wegewitz : Sculpture greenhouse in the sculpture park

literature

• Hans-Joachim Krenzke: Churches and monasteries in Magdeburg , City Planning Office Magdeburg 2000
• Annegret Laabs, Andreas Hornemann: Art Museum Magdeburg Monastery Our Dear Women , DKV art guide No. 438, 6th, revised. Edition, Munich / Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-422-02133-4
• Helga Neumann: The Monastery of Our Dear Women in Magdeburg , DKV Art Guide No. 438, 5th edition, Munich / Berlin undated (2000)
• Margarete Schilling : The bell ringing of the Magdeburg monastery “Our Dear Women”. Magdeburg 1977
• Sabine Ullrich: Magdeburg - architecture and urban development . 2001 ISBN 3-929330-33-4

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bell foundry family Schilling # Schilling bells and chimes 1948–1990
2. ^ Jehmlich Orgelbau Dresden GmbH. Retrieved January 2, 2019 . 

Web links

Commons : Monastery of Our Dear Women  - Collection of images

• Magdeburg Art Museum in the former monastery of Our Dear Women
• The Monastery of Our Lady in 270 pictures

Coordinates: 52 ° 7 ′ 40 ″  N , 11 ° 38 ′ 13.3 ″  E